The Future of Work: Five Game Changers – Overview

This video is part of the Future of Work: Five Game Changers report, which details key game changers that could disrupt work and employment for Canadians. This is part of Horizons’ Economic Futures area of foresight.

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Transcript

We are living through a transition to the Next Digital Economy. Employment and the experience of work could face significant disruption. Here are five game changers affecting the future of work:

1:

Work moves from being long-term and time-based to temporary and task-based. In a globally competitive labour market where many people are paid by the task how can governments ensure that minimum wage and employment standards are met and social support systems are effective?

2:

AI and the automation of tasks could reduce demand for workers long before technologies replace entire jobs. How would people cope with job loss when the work they do is no longer needed across all sectors and when reskilling is difficult?

3:

AI decreases the scarcity of knowledge workers, potentially allowing jobless growth in knowledge industries. If knowledge and some forms of intelligence can be replicated as needed, what might happen to knowledge-based jobs in the future?

4:

Digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain could provide trust and security in transactions, negotiate terms, and predict required goods and services. What might happen if technology eliminates the need for humans facilitating transactions between others?

5:

Where people work and earn may not be where they live and spend. What might happen to taxation, social benefits, and the people whose jobs depend on people spending locally, like restaurants when a person can live anywhere in the world but work in Canada, or vice-versa?

Learn more at horizons.gc.ca.